


New Journey: Kanto (English Version)

by 19Alice98



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Legendary Pokemon, Original Pokemon Region, Pokemon Battles, Pokemon Contests, Pokemon Journey, Pokemon References, Pokemon Trainers, Pokemon Training, Slice of Life, Talking Pokemon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27696932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/19Alice98/pseuds/19Alice98
Summary: What would you do if you suddenly remembered hundreds of events from a past life? Aware that you have spent the last few years in a world that, in your former reality, was nothing more than an anime?Well, Yuki is experiencing it right now and, honestly, he doesn't know what to think.The only thing he's sure of is that he won't waste his second chance.(Maybe he'll even allow himself, along his journey, to chase the dreams he previously thought were unattainable).I will try to retrace the original story making it more realistic and mature. Of course I will add my own ideas and I will also include trips to places described only in the games and manga.I hope I have intrigued you and that you will be willing to give my ff a chance :).The story of pokemon does not belong to me. Only the main character and all the others of my creation can be considered as mine, the same as for the story.This is the English Version of my ff "New Journey: Kanto" in italian that I'm posting in this forum.
Kudos: 2





	1. Episode 1

About the story: I would like to retrace the original story by changing parts, adding sub-plots I invented or were inspired by the game or manga, making it a little more mature and realistic. I have already made a detailed list of all the events that will have to happen in each episode until the end of the Indigo League and then continue with the following series.

P.s .: I will probably post this series also on other sites which I will let you know later so that there is no misunderstanding about who is the author of the ff (it's always me but with different and absurd names xD) 

The story of Pokemon does not belong to me, only the main character and those of my creation are mine, along with the events purely fruit of my imagination.

I hope you enjoy the episode and the reading :). 

Episode 1

It was pitch dark and then pain. The only thing he could feel was pure and simple pain. He didn't even understand exactly what was hurting him. Chris- no… Yuki, his name was Yuki… right? Suddenly his mind was flooded with hundreds of memories. Completely different people and worlds that clashed within his poor mind. It's like a new Big Bang was happening.

One thing is for sure, his head felt exactly like a giant mass had just burst inside it.

There are rumors, but they seem to come from outside. Yuki isn't sure where outside is, he doesn't even know where he is. It is as if he was surrounded by infinite darkness.

But then he saw it. A small and faint light far away from him. Yuki tried to cling to it, as if it were his only lifeline in that place and, actually, as far as he knew it could be so.

But then he hesitated. Blocked by a passing thought. A small concern, which until then he had relegated to the back of his head, emerged forcefully. Like a castaway lost in the sea of memories and thoughts that was drowning and being dragged down, lower and lower. Until, perhaps by sheer dumb luck, he was able to go back up and fill his lungs with the much desired air. 

‘It must be wonderful’ Yuki thought dispassionately, he, on the contrary, felt heavily the lack of oxygen around him. As if it had all been sucked away by that castaway, by a thought that he had tried to wipe out, but which had returned to the surface with all the strength that only the will to live can give you.

Even if he didn't want to admit it, Yuki understood it, particularly in this situation. After all, the screams, the voices of despair he had heard earlier came from outside, from the light.

He wasn't so sure he wanted to reach it anymore. He wasn't mad even if his friends tried to convince him otherwise. 

Friends. Were they real? Or had he imagined it all and had never been Chris? Should he have continued to pursue his journey into the light and try to understand what was happening to him? Or the best choice was to stay where he was now? He had no idea. 

“Usually in movies, light represents the moment in which you pass away" the cursed castaway murmured treacherously from inside his head. Yuki couldn't stop himself from taking a small step back. Of course, his life as Chris was exhausting, he didn't have a family but he had some dear friends. 

And then there was his life as Yuki. It was similar to Chris's but, at the same time, completely different. His character was virtually identical in both realities but there was a very important difference. Yuki was not talking about the abyssal difference between the two worlds that he had just realized, and I assure you that this discrepancy between the two realities did exist; even his dear castaway who had risked drowning just at the thought - nice way to die isn't it? Drowned in a sea of memories and worries - could attest to this. 

No. It wasn't important at the time. What was important was that he had a family! Or rather, Yuki has a family. But he is Yuki, right? So that's okay right? He really wanted to have parents, he wanted such a reality more than anything else. 

Last-minute news, he didn't want to die. Not like Chris and, above all, not like Yuki. 

His thoughts were interrupted by a male voice. He could barely hear it, but suddenly every word, every single syllable and letter became clear, crystalline and chilled his blood. 

"-Anything ... please ... we'll do anything ... but Yu- let Yuki go" 

And in that precise moment Yuki felt the world around him fail. Destroying and shattering, crack after crack. Like an ancient statue that was once imposing but which, with the passage of time, had lost parts of itself. With the only difference that it was not a slow process but as much sudden as it was shocking. The impact was similar to what a bomb would have done in a mirror room. Traumatizing and frightening. Yes, that comparison made more and more sense. Especially now that his eyes were burning, his ears ringed like they were about to burst and his back ... 

Yuki fell to his knees and began to tremble and scream, for a moment he didn't understand the reason for such a gesture. The cause of such an abrupt change in behavior. Until a second before he was fine, sure, he was lost in his thoughts but he wasn't sad, and he didn't feel such pain. 

He had even realized something just before that suffering increased dramatically. A realization that, for a moment, had entranced him and then was covered, without shame, by a landslide of sensations and emotions. Pain, fear, misunderstanding. What was happening to him? Then it all made sense. His back. Those terrible pains were coming from his back. 

The happiness of finally being able to identify the question was brutally crushed by a small, insignificant detail.  
The words of his old math teacher thundered in his head. 

'Finding the problem is not the same as answering to it' Professor Robinson had told him, at the end of a test that he was sure, he was sure, had gone well; yet the offending paper had been graciously embellished with a proud, red two. 

'Bianchi, when will you understand that you cannot get lost in your fancy flights and have to solve the problems I am giving you? It almost seems like you do it on purpose. Is that so? Do you just want to waste my time?’ 

'Of course, because I had nothing better to do than fail my exams left and right in an attempt to annoy him. Not to mention that the stupid "Blobbinson Fish" - a nickname kindly given to him by myself, modestly - drew his lifeblood from the desperation of his students' the boy thought dispassionately. 

'Yes, if you're wondering I hated him. Every hero needs a nemesis right? Or two or three ... or four ... whatever, I had many teachers!' he finally concluded in his head, as if proud of himself. 

Yuki suddenly realized something else. And wasn't it magnificent? A day full of discoveries and revelations. 

It would have been if it weren't for the fact that the light was sucking him in with a force that he would never have attributed to a person, let alone a small forgotten light. Which, incidentally, was no longer so small but was expanding dramatically. 

Yuki realized that he was regaining consciousness and the voices he had heard earlier in the middle of the darkness seemed 100 times higher, certainly the fact that his head was throbbing like never before didn't help. 

Once again he was lost for a few moments in his mind. His back was on fire. He couldn't even understand how much the injuries, that he had just realized he had, hurt. How could he describe them if he couldn't even understand that excruciating pain? 

They were whipping him. Someone was torturing him and his assailant's creepy laughter was matched by heartbreaking pleas. After a period of time that Yuki could only define as infinite, the shots finally stopped. In reality it had only been a few minutes. His face was wet, probably a mixture of tears and sweat. He was trembling so much that he gave the impression of being in the middle of an epileptic fit and, for a moment, he wanted to lose consciousness. 

Then he saw them. Before him, bound and in conditions similar to his, were his parents. 

To be exact, they were Yuki's parents but at that moment he didn't care. Yuki, Chris, it didn't matter anymore. He had parents. His parents were right there in front of him, just a few meters away. 

The scene would have been much more touching and appreciable, however, if the two adults had not been tied up and if they had not been covered in red. Yuki tried to convince himself that his parents were odd people, and that maybe they had decided to take a bath in a tub full of tomato sauce. 

And wasn't that absurd? A part of him, the one that had spent his life enviously watching other children play with their relatives; that little boy who spent his days imagining and dreaming, lost in books, comics and TV series, was, despite everything, ecstatic and embarrassed at the idea of having a family. 

While the other part, the one that seemed to be stronger and more resistant, as it was taking over Chris, already knew them. He knew and loved them and Yuki began to cry even louder than before. 

Happiness, sadness, anguish and hope began to mix so much that he didn't know anymore when one emotion began and where the other ended, joining and strengthening themselves as when the combination of hot and cold air create a cyclone. So Yuki and Chris emerged together as one entity.

Two different people, with distinct stories and coming from, perhaps, parallel worlds, he wasn't sure yet.

One thing Yuki had not yet realized was that the surprises were far from over. 

Here is the first episode, it’s shorter than the following episodes but I wanted to end with this scene so I had to settle for this lenght...

IMPORTANT: I am italian and, although I continuously read in English since it is not my mother tongue, I would like to look for a Beta to give me a hand or someone who is willing to translate the episodes. Thanks a lot <3.

I hope that the first episode has intrigued you and if you like you can leave me a comment, see you next time :).


	2. Episode 2

As I have already said English is not my mother tongue so I hope there are no mistakes. If anyone is willing to be my beta or directly translate the entire episodes let me know, thanks.

In this episode there are some sentences that describe small details about torture, I have highlighted those points so that, whoever wants, can skip them.

Episode 2

“Yuki- Yuki can you hear me?”

A voice roused him from his thoughts and the boy struggled to raise his head that seemed to weigh almost tons. He recognized that voice. Yuki wanted, no, he needed to look the man who was talking to him in the eyes, to make sure it wasn't all a simple fantasy, an illusion due to the shock of the torture.

His eyes were full of tears so everything seemed to be out of focus. Behind him was a person in uniform. He had placed himself in such a way as to prevent him, however much he tried to wade behind him, from seeing his father. Yuki started sobbing and, suddenly, realized that he could no longer control his emotions like when he was just Chris.

The man made a disgusted expression, deforming his face, so much so that even Yuki was able to identify his state of mind despite the tears that continued to crawl out of his eyes.

Honestly, the man should have learned to mind his own business. After all, it wasn't he who had his face, neck and chest submerged in various kinds of body fluids, so he had no right to look at him that way.

“Stupid brat ... so many stories just for a few whiplash”

A delicate female voice immediately countered with a tone of hatred that I never thought would come out of her mouth.

“Yuki is just a child!” The tone of her voice was low but no less angry. It gave off a sense of danger, as if it was a warning.

I also noticed the fact that the woman had marked my name, as if to challenge the man to call me a brat again. Although, personally, Yuki was almost certain that that anger was not referring to the term itself but, rather, to the tone of contempt with which the guard had addressed him.

Slowly Yuki's mind began to clear up. He had identified the man as the guard who had been torturing him for hours, and who must have taken a break after his victim of the day had lost consciousness, only to wake him up in an, let's say, unusual way.

But, more importantly, Yuki was finally able to recognize the two voices and associate them with two specific faces. The first, the one of his father, low and reassuring, while the second sweet and protective of his mother.

It's kind of funny to think about the fact that Yuki had linked to his parents' words, even when he hadn't fully regained consciousness and had no idea of who they were, exactly those feelings.

The subconscious was indeed a force of nature.

Now there was nothing to do but kick the stupid guard out. He wanted to see his family, and he certainly didn't want to be at the mercy of a stupid whip anymore, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, however, the man did not seem to have any intention of leaving.

“Put a stop to that tongue of yours whore!”

The anger I felt towards the jailer for his words and the concern for my mother's safety were gigantic. Then I realized what was happening. My mother was trying to get the guard's attention to focus on herself. To protect me, just like she always had.

Immediately his father took the woman's place, trying to get their jailer to focus solely on himself.

“Don't you dare talk to my wife and son like that! You are just criminals and you will all be captured-”

\--------------- (Small description of torture) -------‐---  
The sentence was interrupted by the sound of the whip that took the breath of Yuki and his mother away with it. The blow, on the contrary, had taken care of mercilessly uprooting from his father's throat, in an instant, a heartbreaking scream and, probably, also a lot of pieces of meat from the collision point. They hadn't had time to do or say anything, just like being struck by lightning. It’s a second, and then you are engulfed in indescribable pain, and yes… long story, but he knew exactly what kind of suffering he was talking about.

\------ (in order to understand the flow of the story I will only say that the father of the protagonist is been whipped) ------------------------ -------

It was difficult to breathe again. Yuki thought in the distance that he was probably having a panic attack. No matter which of the two lives he was in, panic attacks were his faithful companions in both realities.

Perhaps for the first time, Yuki thought it would be nice not to be burdened by so much loyalty and rather be betrayed by something or someone.

Once again he was calmed by the voices of his parents and realized that he was lying on the ground. The guard must have removed the chains that had held him upright and with his face to the wall throughout the torture.

The floor was cold and covered with dried blood. Probably a nice mix of the genetic compound of himself and his family. Not a pretty thought but, surely, a realistic one.

Yuki jumped when he felt liquid fall on his cheeks.

Eh ... usually gravity didn't work that way ... theoretically the tears should flow from the eyes and then down the cheeks. Don't play roller coasters, splash through the air and crash into his face with full force.

Then he realized that his eyes were closed, and when he opened them, he saw the clouded bodies of his parents towering above him.

Oh… now it was clear. It must have been the tears of one of the two figures he could barely distinguish from the dark walls. The upside was that gravity made sense again, it had to be worth something, right?

“Honey can you hear us?” his mother's voice became clearer and clearer, in step with the woman's face and body.

A bud of happiness settled inside his heart when he realized he could see his mother. But the most incredible thing was that he was observing her for the first time not only with Yuki's eyes, but also with Chris's, and that part of himself, alone and who had dreamed of having a family, could not help but jump for joy.

In an instant, however, that bud was mercilessly uprooted upon seeing the numerous wounds that adorned Adelaide's emaciated face like macabre jewels.

The situation seemed to improve when the woman gave him a shaky smile, she was obviously trying to hold back the tears. Then everything seemed to collapse when Yuki saw an expression of concern darting across the face of his mother, who looked to her right for a moment.

Could they stop making such things to him? His heart could not withstand other sudden mood swings. He did nothing but go from happiness to sadness to anger and start the round again.

When Yuki looked to the right he saw his father and, for a moment, he used all his strength solely to absorb every detail of his face. It was precisely at that moment, however, that his euphoria died prematurely, murdered by the awareness of the meaning of all the blood that was flowing from the neck to the man's torso.

Yuki didn't stop even for a moment to think about the fact that he too, that day, had suffered several similar injuries and jumped forward like a spring.

‘A rusty spring and, in general, not exactly one in good condition’ The boy thought dispassionately, feeling his muscles protest and his skin trying, in vain, to not make the wounds on his back dilate further.

Maybe getting up after a torture session wasn't the best of ideas.

Yuki remotely wondered why he did nothing but belittle all the objectively horrendous situations he was experiencing. Of course, it was partly due to his character but he had never made so many absurd and, above all, inappropriate comparisons in such a short time. It had to be a new record ... okay, there was seriously something strange about him.

Then he thought about the fact that, although they had been injured several times, none of them had received the right treatment. Maybe it was due to that? Had his wounds become infected?

Maybe he was delirious? He remembered being kidnapped with his parents several days ago, but he didn't exactly have the possibility, or the means, to mark the passage of time. They didn't have a watch and the food that was brought to them from time to time certainly couldn't help them figure out how much time had passed.

The food and water that every time were casually thrown in front of them, not only arrived at completely busted times, but would barely have been enough for one person, let alone three.

“Hey Yuki ... hey!”

“Fabian! Don't yell at him, he must be shocked”

His parents' voices saved him once again from the endless limbo that was his brain. Seriously, he was tired of constantly losing focus.

“I'm fine-” my attempts at comfort were quickly rendered obsolete by my mother, who in an instant crushed my attempt, once again, to downplay the situation.

“Oh no sir, don't even try. You are not well! ... Honey, you are hurt ... please don't say that you are well when you are not”

I apologized in my head to my mother when her words were not even considered by my brain, which was instead intent on understanding why my hands were tied behind my back.

Who the hell could think of blocking my arms right there, on all those wounds, making them rub and irritate constantly?

...

Of course… thank you so much stupid guard. The one with the Rock Lee eyebrows has always been one of our worst jailers, along with the fake version of Blackbeard, and wanted to remind us constantly of that.

I felt a slight sense of guilt as my mother's voice was getting more and more tremulous. She will probably burst into tears soon.

“Adelaide, try to calm down, we can't afford the luxury of attracting their attention again” said the man in a conspiratorial whisper.

It was obvious that he had been crying, his emerald green eyes were still wet. Probably a ‘healthy’ mix of worry and pain. The guards had to stop putting small pieces of metal in their whips, the idea of losing more skin on his back did not excite him at all.

After several attempts Yuki managed to sit down and the three, after a few more words of comfort and concern, began to discuss how to escape.

Initially they had opted for a safer approach, which consisted in the idea of staying good and waiting for help. Shortly after, however, they realized that they simply had no longer the time or the blood to wait for the police to arrive.

They had ended up deciding, first of all, to observe their captors, something he and his mother in particular were experts at. While his father went out of his way to buy time. He had always been a calm person, he only got angry when something happened to his family and he knew how to use words to his advantage. The man was a real orator, and it was only thanks to him that they were still alive.

The guards fell into his linguistic traps as an average citizen lets himself be duped by the politician on duty of the day. They always ended up revealing more information to him than they and, of course, their boss wanted.

All with the exception of two: 'Lee Eyebrow' and 'Blackbeard the Fake'. Those were the only ones who preferred to torture them like there was no tomorrow.

At the beginning I had given them special nicknames because I thought they were at least a little intelligent and that, therefore, they deserved at least a label to distinguish them.

The other jailers had in fact been lovingly called by myself: 'Sheep number 1', 'Sheep number 2' and so on up to the fourteenth guard.

But then we realized that those two were simply too impulsive to activate their brain and listen but, above all, understand what my father was saying, to be deceived.

I should have called them 'Beast number 1' and 2.

Incidentally, my parents laughed really hard when I revealed the guards' new identities to them. Needless to say, from that moment on we decided to always call them that when we were left alone in our cell.

“'Beast number 1' today was dressed worse than usual ...”

My parents' lips that were frozen in a serious straight line lifted slightly.

My father smiled and, in a mocking tone, whispered, as if it was a secret:

“It's because of his belly ... he has put on weight since the last time”

“Honey, the belly doesn't matter. The aesthetic taste of that man is simply almost as aberrant as his appearance” the authoritative and confident expression that was painted on my mother's face was the icing on the cake.

We couldn't help but burst out laughing.

As usual their names cheered us up a bit. They helped us detach from reality and, every time we said them, we ended up changing the subject and talking about the happy moments before our capture.

Almost as if we had been mentally linked and, with a simple word, all three of us were able to understand what the other needed.

As we mulled over the past, I realized that I really loved my parents. Yuki and Chris were now completely fused, and all I could think about was how much I missed their hugs. The fact that every single time one of us was tortured the other two always tried to make the attention fall on them. I thought back to when we slept on the frozen floor side by side, with my body in the middle and my parents trying to give me as much warmth and support as possible.

The first period of imprisonment had been terrible. The '2 Beasts' had taken pleasure in torturing us right from the start and the food was scarce. A short time later my parents had a big fight.

My father was trying to take on all the responsibilities, he refused to eat to leave what was available to us and always tried to be the center of attention during the torture sessions. That day he got mad at my mom and me because we screamed so much that not only it hurt us but, more importantly, it distracted the men, who then vented on us.

My father was not at all happy with it and, every time he saw my mother's black eye and the bruises on my neck, he gritted his teeth and fell silent. He hated the idea of seeing us hurt and was angry with us but, above all, with himself, sure that he could and should have done more to protect us. After a long discussion we managed to make him understand that we too hated the idea of seeing him hurt and that day, at the end of the heavy dialogue, we cried for hours.

Although my parents had come to an agreement that was based on the fairness of the duties and rights between them, I had been completely, and firmly, excluded.

If the guards had not yet decided who to torture that day I should have stayed on the sidelines, as if I had been invisible. While my parents would have drawn attention to them, taking into account who between the two had been tortured the last time and how serious his injuries still were. That strategy didn't always work as the two 'Beasts' quickly realized that the best way to torture Adelaide and Fabian was to take it out on their only child.

Then there was the problem of the food and water. The last mentioned was always enough for all three, guaranteeing their survival, even if sometimes they woke up with their throats as dry as a desert.

The food, on the other hand, was scarce to say the least. In that case my parents had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to give most of the meal to me, while what was left was divided equally between the two adults on good days. While, on "bad days", most of the second portion was given to the most injured. Needless to say, Yuki didn't approve of their decision at all, but he could admit that he understood it. After all, he was just a child.

That little part of him that was organizing Chris's memories stopped working for a moment, as if he had lost his data connection during the most exciting scene of his favorite movie.

~ Here it is! So… Why did Yuki react like that? What did he realize? Will he tell his parents about his life as Chris? What kind of impact will all the injuries he received have on his body? What was he referring to when he said he knew the pain of an electrical pulse? I'd like to know what you think so, if you like, leave a comment <3.

I hope you enjoyed the episode, as you may have understood this first part is a bit distracting and introspective because the protagonist is still suffering the consequences of his last torture session, (which I don't think helps a person to think clearly) so I tried to represent his state of mind, I hope I succeeded.


	3. Episode 3

Important: Sorry for the delay but I had serious difficulties translating this episode from Italian.

I apologize but there will probably be errors TAT.

As you can imagine I'm looking for a beta xD.

Episode 3

Oh God. Yuki was a child! He hadn't thought about it in the last few hours. He wasn't sure if it was due to a self-defense mechanism or if, simply, his mind had been too busy trying to come to terms with the discovery, not only that that he had reincarnated; but also that he now had a family and that they had been kidnapped for who knows how long.

It was strange to think that he was a child again and, at least, he had reincarnated in the same sex. Being reborn as a woman would have been, not only embarrassing, but also unnerving considering all the troubles that the fair sex has to endure. In particular, the idea of being the victim of prolonged bleeding once a month for years did not inspire him at all ...

Danger escaped.

Between the two options he would have always preferred being a child rather than a woman. The only problem is that he would have had to relive the extremely annoying period of puberty considering he was only 12 years old.

Now all his parents' concern for him made more sense.  
The interesting thing however was that he felt much more Yuki than Christian. Memories of when he was an orphan were faded and distant. He certainly did not feel like a 25-year-old man but more like a pre-adolescent who had remembered having lived in a very distant place.

Not to mention that his brain was still that of a twelve-year-old. Therefore, strictly speaking, having the mind of a boy would make him process all the information as one. He had simply an extra store of memories.

Of course some things would be different, like the disproportionate love he was feeling towards his parents. Yuki had always loved them but now he would probably never experience that period in which a child hates his parents so much that he wants to make them disappear. He was also pretty sure he wasn't going to make the same mistakes of his previous life. Like making a fool of himself in front of his crush, for example.

No thanks, he had already made a fool of himself in one life he didn't need that to happen in the second one as well.  
Yuki heard a worried sigh and looked straight ahead. His parents were watching him anxiously.

“What's up?” He asked a bit shy.

“You were dazed and… Yuki we're worried about you. You are constantly getting lost in your thoughts” his father replied worried.

I flinched in fear when I felt something cool on my forehead and realized that my mother had rested her head on mine.

Yuki realized that he was very hot. The woman's eyes were worried.

Yuki knew he should have linked his mother's gesture and the fact that he felt like he was on fire. His mind, however, was still annoyingly clouded.

“Honey, you have a fever” said his troubled mother.

Fabian looked at his son in alarm and quickly checked his temperature too.

“It doesn't seem so hot to me ...” the man countered with little confidence.

The woman glared at him immediately with a defiant look.  
“You don't feel it because, dear, you've always relied on thermometers"

A small pout appeared on the face of the other and he murmuredwith an annoyed tone:

“Maybe you didn't notice but they were created for that, dear”

“Pardon?”

I heard my father swallow and realized that my mother was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. No problem so far, too bad that the perfect portrait of sweetness and serenity, which Adelaide was trying to present, failed as soon as you noticed the little malicious smile on her lips.

Women were scary.

Apparently the man thought the same. In fact he gave his wife a small, nervous smile and tried to appease her.

“I was just thinking out loud. I have always used thermometers so you are certainly right”

His mother made a small, pleased sound.

“Of course I'm right”

Then she gave me a beaming smile. I could barely keep myself from laughing. My parents were really funny. I tried to stop the laughter while my father was giggling without a care in the world.

“Fortunately, I don't think he has a high fever” the woman continued, her beautiful smile now a little dull.

“How much?” my father asked immediately, the moment of laughter already forgotten.

“I think about 100 maybe 100,4 it could have been much worse”

The stiffness that had taken hold of Fabian's body faded.

The complete change of posture reminded me of the attitude of a Buckingham Palace soldier which I had seen on YouTube when I was still just Christian. The guard had remained stiff as a piece of log for who knows how many hours, then deflated like a balloon as soon as he finished his shift and exited the perimeter of the royal palace.

I still wonder how he managed to breathe, his torso seemed frozen in time.

I was lost once again in an ocean of memories until I realized that my mother was talking.

“Now we know why you are always lost in thought, we were afraid you had hit your head somewhere”

“You didn't hit your head somewhere did you?” my father interrupted.

I quickly shook my head in the negative and immediately regretted it.

‘Good, now i was dizzy’

I heard my parents chuckle slightly, exasperated by my brilliant gesture.

I tried to smile but my head was starting to hurt again and I hoped that I was able to hide it.

I knew I had failed miserably when the giggles stopped and my parents looked into each other's eyes for a moment, their anxiety palpable.

“I would say it's time to sleep, what do you think Yuki?” my father asked me quietly.

The idea of being able to lie down was nothing short of tempting, after all, the wounds on my back still hurt.  
I nodded quickly, eventually making myself dizzy again.

‘It's official, I'm a genius’

My mother looked at me confused, as if she was wondering if I was stupid.

‘I understand your perplexity, mom, really I do’

While my father burst out laughing once more.

Shortly after we laid down side by side, my body between my parents'. I was forced to lie down on the side to keep the lacerations from coming into contact with the ground. Despite the pain, I fell asleep quickly.

\---------------------------------‐--------------------------

When I woke up from a sleep that I could only define as unsatisfactory, I realized one thing: my head was much freer than the day before.

I looked around and saw my parents lying on either side of me. I wanted to say that they had relaxed expressions, but I would have lied shamelessly.

Since the kidnapping we were constantly on our toes, and this did not change during the few hours of relax that Morpheus granted us.

Yuki heard Fabian mumbling in his sleep, he will probably wake up soon, while Adelaide was already yawning, ready to show him her beautiful blue eyes.

I waited with trepidation for my mother to fully awaken, then gently rested my head on her shoulder. When her skin touched mine I realized how much I wanted to hug her.

“Good morning honey” the woman said softly. No matter how serious their situation was, his parents always tried to comfort him and make him understand how much they loved him.

“Morning mom” I replied with the heavy tone of someone who has just woken up. How was it possible that his mother's voice was always so delicate and, at the same time, confident? She had woken up after him but was already more aware than him.

“How do you feel? And your father? How are you?" The woman's voice remained steady, but her eyes betrayed her, showing all her concern.

The string of questions hit me like a truck at full speed that hadn't respected the stop. It took me a few moments to connect and figure out what she asked me.

“It hurts ... but it's much more bearable than yesterday"

I hastened to add the last part, I certainly didn't want to worry my mother further.

Yuki saw the woman's jaw contract at those words.

Oh, she wasn't happy.

Adelaide hated the idea of her child being forced to endure such suffering. She hated that she couldn't hug and comfort him as she wanted. She had failed as a mother.

A memory from a short time ago when she, her husband, and her son had discussed guilt flashed through her head. That day she had decided that she would do more to support her family, just like the other two were doing.

Adelaide wasn’t stupid, she knew that each of them felt guilty for what was happening to them, but the very thought was inconceivable to her. Yuki and Fabian hadn't done anything wrong so, logically, she couldn't be held responsible either.  
Theoretically he had already grasped that concept, but fully assimilating it was another story.

“You shouldn't be forced to feel such pain, let alone try to endure it in silence” the woman finally decided to say.

She didn’t want his son to withdraw into himself. Yuki had always been a child outside the box. He learned and assimilated concepts faster than any other kid his age. He was comfortable with people older than himself rather than his peers, and had an uncommon fantasy.

He compared things or people to images and characters that escaped her and her husband's understanding. Until they enthusiastically discovered that their child was constantly churning out ideas and stories of faraway and absurd worlds, people with powers, aliens and mythological beings. It seemed that Yuki's imagination didn't have an end.

“How's the fever?” the younger just shrugged and gave her a half smile.

“I think better, one thing is certain, I no longer have the impression of having a head full of cotton”

Adelaide returned the smile, amused by the comparison, and rested her forehead on that of her son to make sure of his words.

The child had always had a penchant for similes and metaphors, and she and her husband loved hearing his reasoning.

Adelaide was a scientist, while Fabian was a well-known painter. Both had graduated from good universities. But, while she had chosen to start working as soon as she finished her studies, her husband had preferred to travel, up to the woman's hometown, meeting there for the first time.

Fabian had fallen in love with the new city and had decided to stay there, working in the research laboratory of the area.

It was precisely in that place that they had met. Fabian had immediately given her the impression of being a very intelligent and cultured man. He was involved in several new discoveries and Adelaide admired him for it. The two began to know each other until they decided to date and it was so that the woman, still very young at the time, discovered that her boyfriend loved, even more than science, art in all its facets and, in particular, painting.

At first she was surprised but, after she had seen some of his paintings, Adelaide couldn't help but think that Fabian must be a genius. He could do too well too many things to be an average man. Over the years the two got married and, when Yuki was born, they realized that at least one of the two would have to change profession so Fabian decided to become a full-time painter. The man was happy, he could finally do what he loved and spend time with their child.

Needless to say, their house was full of pictures and books. Yuki had always shown a strong desire to learn, a part of him that he inherited from both of his parents, along with Fabian's passion for art.

‘At least Yuki loves cooking as much as me’

Adelaide thought with a smile. She was happy to have the chance to spend time with her son doing something that both of them enjoyed.

“Yes, it went down” the woman whispered happily. Before Yuki had time to respond a long yawn interrupted him and, when he and his mother turned around, they saw Fabian sitting with half-closed eyes.

“The fever?” the man asked first with a hoarse voice.

“Passed” I replied quickly, and then was immediately corrected by my mother in a tone of reproach. 

“Not completely ... but it has subsided, how do you feel?” she asked a little worried.

“Better”

Yuki and his mother looked at each other for a moment trying not to laugh. His father was a bear when he woke up. He tended to answer in monosyllables and, in general, gave the impression of being a gruff person until he was fully awake.

Usually a couple of coffees speeded up the process but they couldn't exactly ask their captors for that.

After a few minutes his father seemed to wake up completely and whirled towards us, as if he had suddenly remembered something important.

“We have to implement the plan”

My mother and I could only widen our eyes and look at him in surprise.

~ What plan is Fabian talking about? Will they try to escape? Or was the man referring to something else? Why did Yuki and her mother react with such surprise to his words?  
I needed this episode to give an idea of Yuki's life and his relationship with his parents. I promise that things will start to move from the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed the episode :).


	4. Episode 4

I tried my best but there may be some mistakes. In case there are, I apologize.

Episode 4

My mother and I looked at the man in shock for a few moments. We probably looked like two fish out of water, or maybe idiots, although I don't think my mother would have been happy to be called stupid. Some things were not said as a joke, and Adelaide was very proud of her intelligence and knowledge.

"Why right now?" my mother asked in a trembling voice.

"The situation has worsened" the man answered firmly.

The woman frowned thoughtfully.

"But we haven't finished collecting all the information we need yet"

“I know! ... I know, sorry Adel but we can't wait" his tone, first harsh and a little angry, faded to become low and anxious.

At that moment we realized that the man must have heard or understood something important. After all, Fabian hardly ever got angry.

"What did you hear dad?" my words couldn't hide the fear I was starting to feel. If my father reacted like that it meant that the situation was really, really serious.

Fabian looked sadly at his son but, at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a strong pride.

Yuki was just too smart, which is why he and his wife were nothing short of overprotective towards him.

They loved him more than anything else in the world and would do anything for him. They had spoiled him a little, he was their only child after all, but their son had never taken advantage of it.

There had even been a time when Yuki's behavior had worried them. He was very mature so it was difficult for him to make friends with his schoolmates, he preferred to talk to his teachers or with the other scientists at the laboratory.

This didn't mean, however, that he was not a child. He was afraid of the dark and was terrified of deep water. He got lost in the stories that his imagination created, he got excited when he and his wife came home from work but, at the same time, he never asked for too expensive gifts although he knew very well that they weren’t poor, far from it really.

He could count on his fingers the times in which Yuki had thrown a tantrum but they never had the need to put him in detention. He always ended up realizing he was wrong, only to apologize with tears in his eyes.

He and Adelaide had never been able to resist that look.

Fabian was sure, despite their current situation, that he was the luckiest parent and husband in the world.

"While you were sleeping I heard voices and tried to listen to what they were saying"

"What did you hear?" Adelaide immediately asked.

Yuki knew that he would not like the answer when the man looked down at the dirty floor they were sitting on.

“Apparently they realized we don't have the answers they were looking for. They intend to kill us tomorrow "

His father's voice was tired and defeated, Yuki hated hearing him talk like that. He hated the idea of seeing his parents suffer.

“Tomorrow…"

His mother was visibly shocked and had started shaking. They were running out of time.

"Unfortunately we do not have all the information we would have wanted but it will have to be enough"

"Between the two options, I prefer to risk and fail rather than wait to be tortured to death," the words came out of my mouth without my consent. It wasn't a very good thing to say in such a situation, but all three of us knew it would be far better to die quickly trying to escape than to find ourselves at the mercy of those monsters.

The wounds they had caused us during the various sessions had risked to kill us several times, and this when their leader wanted us alive. I didn't even want to imagine what they could do with the green light.

“Yes, you're right" my father's serious eyes stared at me for a few moments, I knew what he was thinking. He was angry that the situation we were in had made me mature even more.

My parents always told me that they are proud of me and that they love me but, at the same time, I know they always hope that I will remain an innocent child for as long as possible. It was something any parent worthy of such a title would want, and Fabian and Adelaide hated to know that the kidnapping and all that followed was tearing me away, piece by piece, like a daisy's petals during the fateful ‘loves me dosen't love me’, the innocence of a normal child.

Despite everything, despite the kidnapping, the fear, the torture and Chris I still felt like a child. Maybe less naive or reckless than I was before all this, but still a child.

And that was exactly what I told my parents, minus Chris's part of course, I certainly didn't want to give the idea that I had developed multiple personalities or that I was schizophrenic.

The smiles that my parents gave me were among the happiest and most radiant I had seen in the last period. I knew I had just lifted a heavy weight from their hearts.

Then we began to think about a good escape plan. All three of us were injured, with my mother in the best condition and I in the worst.

Over the past few days we had tried to get as much information as possible.

My father tried to make the guards talk, finding out how many and which pokemon they usually had with them, if they were armed and what their target was. But, more importantly, the man had managed, following the speeches of their captors, to create in his head a mental map of the prison in which they were locked up.

Apparently they were in a gigantic basement above which was a experimentation laboratory. We had no idea what they were studying but now it didn't matter. We also discovered that the basement had soundproof walls and this could be in our favor as much as it was against us.

My mother counted, she had always been good with numbers, she understood how much time passed between each guard shift and what the various jailers were in each shift.

One of the first things we discussed was in fact the time frame within which we should try to escape. The most auspicious time would come in about six hours, the exact length of each guard shift.

I honestly had no idea how my mother had been able to count for so long without ever losing track or getting distracted, and then converting all those seconds into minutes and, finally, into hours.

Not to mention my father who, with some question or statement well placed here and there, had managed to discover the defense methods available to the guards and find a good escape route.

Then it was my turn. I was in charge of observing and studying our jailers. I had always enjoyed analyzing others and, when I was Chris, I loved examining movies, books, comics or works of art. I speculated on their meaning, on what could happen and on all those hidden messages that the author could have inserted within his work.

I was used to breaking down and analyzing what was in front of me and the life like Yuki had only helped me. Having two research parents and often speaking with several of their colleagues, I ended up learning the art of going from simply observing to researching, dissecting and, finally, psychoanalysis, my object of study. Of course I wasn’t a doctor, a psychiatrist or a scientist but I was used to making enough mental journeys to be able to have a fairly clear idea of the situation. It was something that my parents could have done without problems, in fact, when they could, they observed our kidnappers with me.

Fabian and Adelaide, however, had tasks that only they could do, so the analysis would be mainly in my hands. After all, I didn't have my father's ability to turn other people inside out like socks and I didn't have the same numerical ability as my mother, but they assured me that I would be up to my task.

So I started talking, receiving words of approval from time to time and welcoming with open arms the little details that my parents were pointing out to me.

‘Sheep number 4', for example, was extremely clumsy and seemed to be afraid even of his shadow, while 'n 9’ had a strange tic on his eye every time he was worried.

I continued with the results of my observations for several minutes and, when I finished, we quickly realized which guards should be fooled.

We had a total of 16 jailers in groups of two who supervised us by alternating between them.

Number 1 and 2 for the first six hours and so on until the end of the day with Sheep 7 and 8, to then restart the next day with n. 9 and 10, 11-12, Beast n.1 and 2 to finish with n. 13 and 14. The next guard tour would then start over again following this order.

The good thing was that the 2 Beasts wouldn't have been a problem as they had visited them the day before, the bad one was that they had their hands tied, literally, behind their backs and they had little time to implement their plan.

We decided to act at the next change of guard, when numbers 3 and 4 would be entrusted to the control of our cell. Number 3 had serious problems relating to the fairer sex and could not even look my mother in the face.

We had to exploit the weaknesses of both of them if we wanted to have even a chance of salvation.

In the end we decided to try to escape in a few hours, immediately after the changing of the guards. At that point we would end up with two of the dumbest jailers with only one pokemon each. Apparently their boss didn't want to waste resources on half cartridges. I could only agree with him. Those two weren't exactly the brightest Lumos in the class.

We spent the next hour refining our plan and then waited for the right moment to strike.

\------------------------------------------------

“It's been 20 minutes,” my mother murmured softly opening her bright blue eyes framed by long blonde locks.

Adelaide had always taken care of her appearance and was a beautiful woman. Sure, after all the time she'd been locked in dirty dungeons and been a victim of torture, her hair looked a lot darker than it really was, her face and body were filthy, but she remained an angelic-looking woman .

“Are you ready?" my father asked with a hint of elation.  
It was strange to think that they were as excited as they were worried.

My father's dark green eyes were confident, giving my mother and me the courage we needed to give him an affirmative sign.

One side of his mouth rose slightly in a small encouraging smile and so our mission began.

\-------------------------------------------------

"Why are you treating me like this, what have I done to you?!"

"What have you done? And do you even have the courage to ask me?"

The couple's voices rose more and more until they became screams, long and shrill, so loud that they could have awakened the dead.

The jailers would have denied it to death but the uproar had made them jump with fear. The two looked at each other in embarrassment and reached the silent agreement to never talk to anyone about it.

When they opened the cell door they saw the couple, whom they had been holding prisoner for just over two weeks, in the midst of an argument of gigantic proportions, while the child watched the scene from a corner of the room in fear.

“I don't understand what I did to you!" the woman's screams made the kidnappers' gaze fall back on the couple.

“When did you ever understand what I wanted?!" the vein on the man's neck was perfectly visible and his face was red with anger.

"Don't yell at me!"

“I'm not screaming!"

"Yes, you are! I cannot handle it anymore! How could I be so stupid and marry someone like you?"

“Ah now you’re playing the part of the saint? You are only interested in money"

"Money? From a starving painter like you?"

Adelaide's screams grew louder an louder until the guards and, apparently, her husband as well, started to get a headache

“Stop screaming! You look crazy!"

“Don't call me crazy! You're just a coward, a worm!"

Until that moment, the jailers had limited themselves to observing the fight, shifting their gaze first to one and then to the other depending on who was yelling. It looked like they were watching a tennis match.

Then the man threw himself at the woman and, even though he was tied like a salami, one of the kidnappers immediately rushed towards them blocking the father.

If he let one of the prisoners get hurt, he would be the one to pay the consequences. Mike and Ron were the only ones who had tortured the three inmates during the period of their imprisonment and, the two friends and colleagues, became soon fond of the little family in a perverse way. Only they could torture them, and no one was allowed to take away their toys, their entertainment.

Those two were really creepy, and every time Esther met their eyes shivers came down his spine. They were sick, and he had no intention of dying by their hand and if to prevent his passing he had to stop the stupid fight of a couple too dramatic for their good, then so be’ it.

Adelaide burst into tears and walked away from her husband, frightened, approaching the other guard as if hoping that he too could protect her, just as the other was doing.

'Sheep n. 4' immediately stiffened and his face turned red as a pepper with embarrassment.

The man tried not to show it and took a few steps forward, then hesitated and, after a few moments, decided to continue towards the woman. Just then Fabian started screaming again and the guards gave him expressions of shock.

What kind of lungs did he have? How was possible that he still had enough oxygen to scream?

Meanwhile Yuki leaned against the wall of the small room and began to slowly advance towards the door passing completely unnoticed, as if he were part of the wall.

After perhaps a minute, which to him seemed to last an eternity, the child managed to get out of that damned cell, which he had feared would have become his and his parents' grave.

A little further on there was a table with two chairs, playing cards, some empty beer cans, a purse and a shoulder bag.

Yuki knew, thanks to his father, that 'Sheep n. 3’ always carried with him, in his bag, a Swiss army knife, in order to peel the apples he often ate during his guard duty. Nothing illegal, considering its small size, but certainly very useful for their situation.

After a few moments the child was able to open the bag and extract the object he was looking for. Finding it was easier than expected since Yuki had noticed that 'N. 3’ was a fan of order and had thus come to the conclusion, which later turned out to be correct, that the man would have put the knife in the most suitable place for an object of that size: the small pocket at the top on the right. This had saved him precious time, which he then needed to free himself from the ropes that kept his wrists locked behind his back.

\---------------------------------------------

After several attempts I managed to break the rope and I let out a sigh of relief. Only when I looked at my hands, however, did I realize that the rope had scraped the skin with which it had come in contact, creating grooves now covered with dried blood.

At that sight I could not help but make a little grimace and I began to quickly open and closed my hands a couple of times to restart the proper circulation of the blood. When my fingers began to regain color, I grabbed the two bag and quickly checked their contents.

I had to hurry. My parents were incredible actors when they wanted to, but there was a limit to everything, so their farce probably wouldn't hold up much longer. I noticed with amazement that inside the pouch there was also the pokeball with inside the only pokemon of 'Number 3', a Rattata if I remember correctly.

I took the contents of the purse and put everything in the bigger bag taking it away with me.

I looked around and, just as we had feared when formulating the plan, outside the cell there were no weapons that we could use, and I didn't have time to look for them in other rooms. A simple chair should have been enough.

Armed with a fairly unusual object, I silently approached the room and realized that 'Number 4' was starting to lose patience.

When my father noticed me he gave me such a small nod that, for a moment, I thought I imagined it even though we had discussed the reason for its use a few hours earlier.

Fabian began to scream again, this time toward the guard who had tried to block him until then.

As soon as I realized that 'N. 4’ was about to take out his pokeball I rushed towards him and slammed the chair on his back repeatedly, until he lost consciousness. I didn't want to risk the guard getting up at any moment so I gave him a few more blows to make sure he was knocked out.

In the meantime my mother threw herself on 'N. 3’ who, due to shock and embarrassment, was unable to avoid the full-blown kick that the woman gave him between the legs. The man emitted a humiliating cackle of pain as he fell to his knees.

It was quite obvious that I had inherited far more than the color of one of my eyes from my mother when Adelaide continued to kick the man in the head, aware that it was the most delicate part of the human body and that if she wanted to be sure she had knocked the guard out, she should bet on that.

~ Here is the fourth episode! What will happen now? Will Yuki and his family manage to escape or will they be forced to hide somewhere waiting for help? Will they find other obstacles along their escape? What will they do with the two jailers they just knocked out? Why were they kidnapped? What were the guards referring to when they said their prisoners didn't have the answers they were looking for?

I hope you enjoyed the episode and there weren't too many mistakes:)


	5. Episode 5

I hope there are no mistakes but in case I apologize.

Episode 5

The three of us found ourselves drenched in sweat.

Our hearts were pounding because of all the adrenaline that was still running through our veins.

We were in a room that had served as our cell for who knows how many days; with a man who had fainted, and another, who was about to find himself in the same situation as his colleague.

Yuki raised his head, he couldn’t stay still. He did nothing but shift his weight first on one foot and then on the other; until he realized he had bit his lip so hard that his mouth was flooded with blood.

How had he not realized it?

That thought was instantly ignored when he realized they were finally free.

He and his parents looked at each other for a moment and then immediately started moving again, sure of what they should do now.

\-----------------------------------------

I took the knife and freed my father first, since he was the one closest to me, and then my mother. They both massaged their respective wrists and then returned in action.

We quickly tied the two ex-jailers with the same ropes that had kept us stuck until recently and sighed simultaneously.

Now that we were sure that the two guards couldn't move and wouldn't have a chance to attack us, we felt safer, ready to carry out our plan.

We looked into each other's eyes and, when I took a step forward, that moment of total loss that we were feeling was broken. My parents did the same, until I found myself in the middle of a group hug.

Our first real human contact that could be defined as such in weeks.

I could not hold back the tears and, when I raised my head, I was greeted by beaming smiles and wet, but at the same time full of life, eyes. If I could have seen myself in the mirror at that moment, I would have found reflected in it an expression identical to theirs.

We allowed ourselves another quick hug, then reassembled and checked that the two men had nothing hidden that could help them escape.

Finding no objects of a suspicious nature, we took 'Number 4' pokeball containing a Zubat and, after gagging them, we quickly left our cell, making sure to lock the door.

We entered a narrow, damp corridor, proceeding forward and following my father's directions. Right, left, forward, left and so on.

When we arrived roughly in the center of the basement, my mother suddenly froze, as if petrified. We turned to her, questioning her with a glance.

The woman's eyes were wide and it seemed as if she had stopped breathing.

“Didn't you hear anything?” she whispered, eyeing, quickly and repeatedly, various points in the room around her, as if preparing to defend herself from an invisible attack.

My father and I looked at each other for a moment, considering what to do. Eventually I gave her a negative head sign in response.

Adelaide frowned and bit her lip hard.

“Ok”

“No… no, it's not ok. If there are other guards, we absolutely must understand who and where they are, we cannot risk being caught unprepared”

As my father said those words we heard the voice of one of our worst persecutors.

It had to be a nightmare.

Ron was talking on the phone to who knows who somewhere in the basement and was walking towards us.

The atmosphere around us suddenly became heavy.

The worried and anxious looks we quickly exchanged between us spoke for themselves. We walked back slowly but realized that whatever we tried to do, he would find us. All the other rooms were locked and we only had the option of opening our cell. Locking ourselves there, however, would have meant condemning us to a sure death. Ron would immediately realize that there was something strange not seeing his colleagues in front of the cell, and they would be doomed.

What the hell was that idiot doing here today? Right at that moment?

“I know! I get the it fuck, you've been telling me the same thing for hours! When I find that asshole Ester I'll kill him! Because of him I had to go back to this dump on my day off! For what? A fucking USB that he mixed up with the researchers'!”

The three members of the little family opened their mouths wide at the same moment, absolutely speechless.

When it comes to bad luck.

'Maybe we should have vented a little bit on this Ester before running away, and not just knock him out.' They brooded in unison with a strange sense of despair and anger.

“Okay we have to think of something, and fast” my mother murmured promptly.

For a moment I thought I could hear her heartbeat. Or maybe it was my heart that was trying to get out of his rib cage.

I wasn't sure.

I just knew I was getting nauseous, and my hands felt like pieces of ice.

We had no weapons other than a Swiss army knife and two pokeballs, which we could not use as their residents would never listen to strangers.

On the plus side, Ron still seemed to be a long way off.

We were able to hear it only thanks to the fact that every single noise in the basement tended to echo. All the more reason to discuss what to do in the lowest possible tone of voice. 

“I don't know anything about him other than what the other guards told me about him: he has two very strong pokemon and he's not someone we can underestimate” 

“He is sadistic” I intervened almost without thinking. 

“... Yes he is” Fabian could only reply, it wasn't certainly something that could be denied, after all, the nickname ‘Beast n. 2’ must have been born somewhere, right?

“We can't attack him, not until he ends the phone call at least. The person he's talking to would notice and call the cavalry” my father continued seriously.

Adelaide seemed to have suddenly realized something terrible. “And the reinforcements would be just a few steps from here since the laboratories are above the basement”

“Exactly, so we can't risk it. The only solution is to wait for him to finish the call and then try to attack him”

“The chairs we used are locked in the room where the guards are, we can't go back to get them, it would take too long and we would risk being discovered”

The situation was taking an increasingly ugly turn and I didn't like this at all. We had devised our plan down to the smallest detail and now this happens?

We had discovered, thanks to my father's speeches, that most of the guards left the laboratory at lunchtime. So the idea was to hide in an office where, apparently, hardly anyone entered, wait there until we had either found a way to contact the rescue, or wait for the time when all the guards were concentrated in the same points, and then go around the structure and escape.

It should have been perfect and instead, due to an idiot who couldn't even distinguish his USB from the others’, we were in danger of dying or, even worse, being captured and tortured until we begged for the final blow.

All for an oversight not theirs, but, even worse, of one of the guards who had treated them like animals for weeks, it seemed almost done on purpose!

My mother's earnest voice brought me back to myself, freeing me from my thoughts.

“A little further on there are several crossroads, we could use them in our favor to catch him by surprise as soon as he passes the last corner”

We tried to come up with a new plan, an emergency landing, in an attempt to amortize the damage Ron would surely cause.

\------------------------------------------

Ron was walking confidently towards his colleagues.

All the things that crossed his mind had 2 focal points: take the damn USB and make that incompetent Ester pay.

Then the man slowed down his strides for a moment, and a 32-toothed smile appeared on his face.

He had just come up with an, in his humble opinion, brilliant idea. He could have some fun with his new toys, maybe he could even call Mike to invite him to the party.

Not that his friend couldn't draw thoughtful conclusions on his own. He just needed to listen…

Happy with his new goal, the guard picked up his pace again.

He culdn't help but turn up his nose. He hated that place, it was dirty, wet and gigantic, it always took him a lifetime to get to the cells.

The only positive aspect were the walls which, as they were soundproofed, allowed him to play as much as he wanted with the little family, without worrying about disturbing the scientists who were above them.

At the same time, those magnificent walls made their cries resound throughout the basement. Allowing him, when he stood guard outside the cell while Mike was enjoying himself, to greedily feed on every single moan and scream that came out of their mouths.

Ron loved the feeling of wallowing in other people's pain, especially when it came to the suffering of stupid couples with perfect lives.

The man had no idea that the only things he loved about that place would soon backfire on him.

Everything seemed to be going well, until Ron felt a stabbing pain in his side just as he was turning yet another corner of the fucking dungeon.

The cry that came out of his mouth was a mixture of pain and anger. His knees gave out for a moment and his assailant continued to attack him relentlessly.

Fortunately, the attacker did not seem to have a particularly strong physique and seemed to attack him more like a trapped animal rather than a predator.

At that moment he thanked from the bottom of his heart all the hours he had spent in the gym over the years and the friendly boxing challenges he often did with some of his colleagues. These allowed him to react much faster than expected, throwing a punch in the gut of his attacker and extracting one of his pokeballs.

\--------------------------------------

I saw my father fall to the ground, a grimace of pain on his face, he was breathing heavily and his hand was covering the injured spot.

Ron looked at who had attacked him and when he recognized Fabian he burst out laughing.

Perhaps he thought that my father had run away alone, leaving my mother and me behind; or he was simply happy to have another excuse to attack him. The only thing I know is that that sound gave me goosebumps.

His hysterical laugh stopped abruptly, a moment passed, just long enough for him to wipe away a few tears that had escaped his eyes, and then he gave the order to his Nidoqueen to attack.

“Use **Scratch** , but don't kill him, I want him alive”

The assault began immediately and my father was forced to try to avoid the various attacks of the pokemon, receiving some injuries on his arms and hands with which he was protecting his vital points.

They didn't look particularly bad to me.

I clung to the fact that, although I didn't know anything about medicine, I had seen several medical TV series when I was Christian, and I hoped I was right.

However I noticed that Nidoqueen didn't seem at all happy that her attacks weren't hitting the target, so the pokemon decided, in a completely arbitrary way, to change tactics.

Nidoqueen slammed one of her paws hard on the ground, thus causing a strong earthquake concentrated in the area around her, causing the man to fall to the ground and stunning him for a few moments.

At that point the pokemon grabbed him strongly lifting him from the ground; ready to deliver the prisoner to her trainer.

Fabian tried in every possible way to free himself, worried that the being could crush him at any moment.

Nidoqueen, on the other hand, was the portrait of serenity now that she had achieved her victory.

Meanwhile my mother threw herself on the man, coming out of our hiding place and taking him by surprise, causing him to drop the pokeball to the ground and trying to catch the other one as well.

While the guard was being distracted by the woman I lowered myself as much as possible and tried to quickly reach the pokeball.

I had to hurry, my father didn't have much time left.

I thanked heaven that ‘N. 2’ had ordered the Nidoqueen only to capture him and not to kill him, otherwise the man wouldn’t have lasted even a few seconds considering his current physical condition and the malnutrition.

When the pokeball finally found itself in my sweaty hands I didn’t hesitate even for a moment and, with a tremulous voice, I ordered the pokemon to return to its sphere catching her by surprise and hitting her from behind with the red ray that, in a moment, dragged her inside the object.

The jailer, realizing what had happened, punched Adelaide in the face who was attacking him regardless of how many blows she had received up to that moment, making her eyes water and blood come out of her nose.

“Damn whore!”

I watched with a clenched jaw Ron grab my mom by the hair and try to slam her against the wall.

I didn't even realize I had moved but, in a moment, both my father and I pounced on the man making him fall to the ground.

He tried to extract what we thought was his second pokeball, but was actually a gun.

“No!”

My father's cry of anger and despair echoed throughout the basement.

In a moment I was pushed away and my ears started ringing.

I thought remotely that I must have heard wrong.

The blood that was rapidly expanding on the fabric of my father's ruined shirt however seemed to want to mock me and my naivety.

Ron had pulled the trigger without any remorse, not once but twice, one after the other with barely a few seconds between them.

Fabian's body was stiff and his breathing was labored while the guard's attitude seemed to cry out serenity, as if that action wasn’t important, as if he hadn't made two damn holes in my father's chest.

“Dad!” the inhuman scream that came out of my lips seemed almost alien to me, I didn't think I could emit a sound at such a frequency but I had done it and, for a moment, I thought that all my vocal cords had disintegrated. It was the only explanation I could find to justify the fact that I could no longer speak, as if even the smallest and most insignificant of words were trapped in the middle of my throat, unable to escape. It wouldn't have been so strange considering the abuse to which I had subjected my organs shortly before to make that sound.

When I recovered a little from the shock I realized that securing my father took precedence over anything else, so I jumped forward and pushed his body, albeit with difficulty, away from the man before he could shoot again.

Ron tried to get up and began to speak, but was held back by severe pain. My mother had just kicked him in the hand causing him to lose his grip on the gun, which immediately found its new owner in Adelaide.

The woman was crying and shaking but her hands seemed strangely steady, firm.

“That's my husband you bastard!”

Her tone seemed to freeze not only the entire basement but also the guard, who was trying to grab his second pokeball.

In a moment Adelaide pulled the trigger, Ron's face took on an unpleasant expression of fear, surprise and pain. The man was hit in the leg and began to scream in pain.

The woman approached him and, regardless of his prayers and supplications, shot him once more in the head, merely murmuring a disgusted:

“I could never feel pity for the monster who tortured my family”

Somewhere in my mind I couldn't help but think ‘good riddance’ but my brain was too busy worrying about my father's injuries all the blood he was losing and how to help him.

\----------------------------------------------

Yuki laid Fabian gently on the ground and Adelaide quickly joined them, kneeling next to her husband on the opposite side from where her son was.

The woman held the gun tightly in her left hand, terrified by the thought that Ron could get up and finish the job.

Her husband was trying to be strong for her, for them.

He was attempting to not make them worry but he was sweating, he was losing so much blood and his eyes were tightly closed, trying not to show how much it hurt.

She was surprised that he wasn't screaming out like that worm Ron had done, but her husband, like her and their baby, had learned, to her regret, to endure the pain through gritted teeth during their long imprisonment.

“Oh dear, please try to resist”

Yuki's pupils were dilated beyond belief, he was terrified and angry, how could such a thing happen? They didn’t even have gauze or other medical tools to help his father and the man, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, was certainly suffering terribly.

The boy couldn't help but think that it was all his fault.

His father had served as a shield to protect him and he was injured. The man had taken not one, but two bullets to the chest.

He wasn't sure he would be able to survive without immediate help.

From what he remembered from 'Grey's Anatomy' and similar series, the proximity, the caliber and the point at which one was hit could decree the salvation or death of someone. But apart from that, he didn't know anything else about firearms. 

“Okay honey, now I'm going to put pressure on the wound to decrease the blood loss but you have to breathe ok? Don't stop breathing”

I looked up, ready to ask my mother what I could do to help her, and noticed that, along with her voice, her hands had started shaking again.

I was also shivering and I didn't know if it was due to the cold of the basement or the cold that was slowly expanding inside me.  
My eyes were filled with tears and everything around me looked blurry.

“You are the wound expert here Adel, but I think I know when my body is giving in” the victorious grin on my father's face seemed nothing short of surreal and out of place in such a situation.

He was trying to lighten the mood and I tried to laugh, but I only managed to let out a strangled sob.

I burst into tears, unable to hold them back any longer.

My mother kissed him gently and rested her forehead on his.

“For once you managed to overtake me eh Fabian?” she tried to joke, but her laugh was obviously forced. 

“I-I'm afraid the bullets hit the lungs”

“How much time?”

“Twenty, maybe thirty minutes”

Hearing those words I could only grab onto my father's shirt in an attempt to keep him stuck there, with me.

A few minutes? Was this all the time I had left to spend with my father? Thirty miserable minutes? It had to be a bad joke.

I was more and more sure of that naive theory when I heard my mother scream a resounding and scared “Down!”

I instinctively threw myself on my father making him emit a groan of pain.

It must have been a nightmare, I would soon wake up in our cell, my body warm and a sense of comfort in my heart.

I tried to close my eyes and reopen them after a few moments but nothing had changed, I hadn't woken up.

That day I realized that reality would always be worse than any nightmare my subconscious could ever churn out.

~ And here's the fifth episode! The situation degenerated quite quickly...

Why did Adelaide scream? Will they be able to save Fabian? Will they be forced to leave the man behind or will they try to take him with them, knowing that he will die before their escape or help arrives? For those who were wondering, the second move that Nestqueen uses is **Earthquake**.

I hope you enjoyed the episode:).


End file.
